Disney, Altice shares gain after deal avoids blackout

Reuters Staff

1 Min Read

Oct 2 (Reuters) - Shares of Walt Disney Co were the biggest gainers on the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Monday after the company reached a tentative deal that kept ESPN and other networks in the homes of millions of New York-area pay TV customers.

Altice USA and Disney have been sparring over how much the cable operator would pay to continue carrying ESPN, ABC and other channels on its Optimum cable service.

Both sides are under pressure from cord cutting, or dropping of pay TV service, as audiences flock to cheaper streaming services.

Shares of Altice were up 2.2 percent at $27.90 in early trading, easing from a jump of more than 10 percent premarket. Disney’s shares were up 0.9 percent at $99.42. (Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza)